The Onan Genset is back on-line!!

Hello Folks out there in Vintage RV land!

I have posted up some videos on my effort to address some of the quirks of my BFA 4.0 Onan Genset that provides AC power to my rig and helps charge up the batteries. The past summer had me whacking the genset control panel with a rubber mallet to get it to start up, otherwise hitting the start button you would just hear the cycling of the solenoids... clicky, clicky, clicky. After doing that for a while the starter solenoid just broke in two and that was the time I decided to clean everything up.

My Box-O-Parts collected over the last few months... no kidding. The one solenoid took over 2 months to get.

The YouTube Video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=4heM5msoRkM

Between Amazon, Jackssmallengines.com and other sources I ordered up the new parts and made up my mind to eliminate any old parts and get this Onan back up and running as it should. Most of the parts you can still get but the relays are NLA, so  you have to improvise and order some Bosch 0 332 209 150 relays (5 pin~!!!!) in lieu of the original Bosch 0 332 209 125 relays. Same wiring and function.

Managed to get all the new and alternate bits in place, fit on new clips and prep for restart!

While doing the video I was really ticked that the Onan wiring harness was all white. How do you figure out what wire goes where with no color coding???? Easy, you realize that the wires all have codes written on them. I mean the wiring diagram (not schematic) has all the wire codes on it and you can follow just what goes where when installing new parts. Glad I figured that out!\

Yeah, remember this is a "schematic" and not the actual wiring diagram available on the manual or on the interwebs. 

Some details came up over which starter solenoid was the one for this genset. When I bought it the genset had a 4 post solenoid like an old Ford version. The two post for the battery then another two for Ignition and Start on the front. I order a replacement based on the model and they send my a 3 pole version. Oh, oh. What to do?? Well we should refer to the wiring diagram on the genset and what do you know the diagram shows both posts ( ignition and start) on it.

It's nearly 10pm and I've started up the generator several times both at the genset and on the remote panel up front. Seems to work just fine!